Engaged

There is something intense about London and New York that I find energizing and invigorating.  As I reflect, trying to identify exactly what is captivating my attention, I have come to realize it is the engagement people have with life.  There is nothing casual about it!  People, in the main, are intense in how they go about living.  Late nights are more normal than exceptional.  Heated debates can occur any where at any time on any subject, and the participants will usually walk away friends.  Being open to new ideas, ways of doing things and outcomes is considered a way of living, not something special or unusual.
 
Being engaged, seriously, intensely, and with all of one’s faculties, is a trait found in everyone who is at the top of their game.  Athletes, musicians, and, perhaps idealistically, followers of God are engaged in the business of living, excelling, and giving their expertise to the individuals in their communities.  Imagine a world where people seriously cared about the important issues of life.  If this was the case we would more often than not hear words like “I will shatter the Assyrian who trespasses my land and stomp him into the dirt on my mountains.  I will ban his taking and making of slaves and lift the weight of oppression from all shoulders.” (Isaiah 14.25)  These are a words of someone engaged in life.
 
I am not condemning or even being critical about the way we, you, others in our community, or I, engage in life.  Rather I am thirsty, deeply through ever fiber of my being thirsty for more passion in life.  I long to people standing up for the rights of those unable to stand.  I long to pursue solutions to problems; not just fight the outcomes.  I long to see people taking part in their communities lives instead of walking by.
 
We have an opportunity, with the dawn and the day, to touch the lives around us.  We can reach out and be the difference.  Everything is possible with a new day.  Today is here, now.